One or more embodiments of the invention are related to the fields of electronics and 3D printing. More particularly, but not by way of limitation, one or more embodiments of the invention enable a matrix-controlled printhead for an electrochemical additive manufacturing system.
Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D Printing, is often used for the production of complex structural and functional parts via a layer-by-layer process, directly from CAD (computer aided drafting) models. Additive manufacturing processes are considered additive because materials are selectively deposited on a substrate to construct the product. Additive manufacturing processes are also typically layered meaning that layers of the product to be produced are fabricated sequentially.
Currently, widespread use of metal additive manufacturing techniques is limited due to the high cost associated with selective laser melting (SLM) and electron beam melting (EBM) systems. Further, most metal additive manufacturing devices currently in the industry use powdered metals which are thermally fused together to produce a part, but due to most metals' high thermal conductivity this approach leaves a rough surface finish because unmelted metal powder is often sintered to the outer edges of the finished product.
An emerging alternative for additive metal manufacturing is to use electrochemical reactions. In an electrochemical manufacturing process, a metal part is constructed by plating charged metal ions onto a surface in an electrolyte solution. This technique relies on placing a deposition anode physically close to a substrate in the presence of a deposition solution (the electrolyte), and energizing the anode causing charge to flow through the anode. This creates an electrochemical reduction reaction to occur at the substrate near the anode and deposition of material on the substrate. An illustrative apparatus that enables additive manufacturing via electroplating is described for example in U.S. Utility Pat. No. 10,465,307, “Apparatus for Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing,” by the inventors of the instant application. This apparatus demonstrated a novel approach to electrochemical additive manufacturing that uses a printhead with an array of anodes to build portions of each layer of a part in parallel, instead of moving a single anode across a part to sequentially construct portions of the layer.